BitMEX Sued for Alleged Market Manipulation Ahead of Shutdown
BitMEX, one of the largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchanges, has been hit with a class action lawsuit after announcing its shutdown. The plaintiffs, BKX Services Inc. and David Namdar, claim that BitMEX engaged in market manipulation and misappropriated nearly 623 BTC ($64,088) due to forced liquidations.
The lawsuit accuses BitMEX of accessing customers' private information and continuing to trade while servers were down and users were unable to access the platform. This allowed the exchange's internal trading team to profit from the liquidations, rather than refunding excess collateral to traders.
The complaint alleges that BitMEX offered leveraged trading up to 100 times customers' collateral but allegedly liquidated their positions before all assets had been used up. This resulted in users losing their positions while the remaining BTC collateral was worth more than the losses incurred.